Once more into the SBC breach....

The SBC 2025 is coming and I will be there with Baptist Women in Ministry--join us in Dallas!

For the third year in a row, messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention are attempting to pass the Law Amendment. As a quick refresher, the Law Amendment would amend Article III of the SBC Constitution to prohibit churches from allowing women to hold any job with the title of pastor—literally stating that churches may not “affirm, appoint, or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind.” The amendment failed to receive a 2/3 majority to pass last year, which should have killed it, as the convention only allows changes to the constitution if an amendment passes two years in a row.

But, it isn’t dead yet. And chances are, if it comes up for a vote in 2025 at the convention in Dallas, it may pass and be back in play for the 2026 convention in Orlando, Florida.

I will never forget when the Law Amendment was first introduced in 2023. I spoke out against what Mike Law, the original drafter of the amendment and an SBC pastor in Virginia, did in an attempt to garner support. He created a list of SBC churches with female pastors, along with their addresses and sometimes even maps and pictures of the women, which was the posted online at the Baptist Standard. The dust-up, for lack of a better phrase, over this led to the Baptist Standard taking down the list (which I was so grateful for their response) as well as me leaving twitter.

There is a second reason I will never forget the Law Amendment. Literally a few days before it was introduced at the 2023 convention, I ran across the letters in the SBC archives in Nashville which eventually led me to uncovering an untold case of clergy sex abuse in the SBC and CBOQ (Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec) and the story of a pastor’s wife named Maria. For those of you who haven’t gotten around to reading Becoming the Pastor’s Wife yet, this is the story I tell in my 8th chapter “The Cost of Dorothy’s Hats”. It is also the final episode of All The Buried Women, “She refused to take the bed.” Here is how I described the significance of this find, and how it relates to the Law Amendment, in my interview with Savannah Locke for All the Buried Women:

“You have to think about the context in which I'm reading this I'm in the Nashville SBC headquarters it's on the eve of the 2023 convention where on the table at the SBC 2023 convention first of all is their continued delayed response to the sex abuse crisis as well as the issue of if churches that have ordained female pastures are going to be allowed to remain in friendly cooperation with the SBC. All of this is in the back of my head when I'm reading this letter that is written to the SBC about a pastor employed by the SBC, who the letter writer claims was involved in what we would consider to be clergy sex abuse. So someone underneath his pastoral authority. Here is exactly what the sex abuse crisis in the SBC is about, about these pastors who have committed clergy sex abuse and have been allowed to stay in office. And not only that, but then the SBC has been accused of covering up for these pastors, of ignoring the information and even some of the allegations that they have destroyed evidence. And this is exactly what I see in this letter, is that the SBC officers who were contacted about this man claimed that they had no knowledge of what had happened, destroyed evidence is one of the accusations that's made here, and essentially have been dismissing the claims. So, everything that was happening in the 2023 SBC right now was sitting, staring at me from this letter written in 1983.”

Which brings us to the 2025 convention. Honestly, it could be 2023 again (including that I just ran across another sex abuse case in SBC seminary archives last week—more on that later). The SBC still has not made measurable nor meaningful changes to address the sex abuse crisis. I think the Religion News Service headline sums up SBC attitudes quite well: “Abuse database is no longer a priority for Southern Baptist leaders.” And now a pastor is seeking to bring the Law Amendment for a vote once again.

I keep hoping the SBC will make better choices. I keep hoping they will remember their history of supporting and ordaining women. I keep hoping they will realize the harm they are doing not only to women but also to the Gospel of Jesus.

But so far they haven’t. I don’t know what to do except what I have been doing: telling the truth about history and fighting for women.

This year I will be at the SBC 2025. I’ve registered for it. I’ve also partnered with Baptist Women in Ministry to hold a parallel event to the SBC 2025 in Dallas. Meredith Stone, the BWIM Executive Director, and I will host a conversation and answer questions about the state of women in the SBC. We will talk about the Law Amendment, pastor’s wives, women pastors, and All the Buried Women, too. I hope it will be a time of encouragement for all women in ministry, from pastors’ wives to pastors, and I especially hope to help SBC women better understand their own history.

Join us if you can! The event is $10 (to offset the cost of the space and support BWIM) and I will also have copies of Becoming the Pastor’s Wife for sell (and signing) with all proceeds going to Baptist Women in Ministry. Brazos Press, has donated a few copies for us to give away as door prizes and I think I have a few magnets and t-shirts to give away too.

I hope you can make it! We have limited space, so don’t wait too long to grab a ticket. You can register here.